Travel the World with Oscar

by Willy Volk on

In years past, local tourist boards saw generous spikes in traffic after popular movies featured the locations they tout. For example, both Alberta and Wyoming enjoyed gobs of slack-jawed, cash-carrying visitors last year after Brokeback Mountain won all those accolades. If you want to travel to the locations in which this year’s Best Picture-nominated films were set, here’s where you’d have to go.

The nominees for best picture are:

  • Babel — To visit the locations in this whirling dervish of a film, you’d better make sure your passport is current. After all, you’ll be heading to Morocco, Japan, and Mexico.
  • The Departed — Set in Boston, lucky movie-set-hunters may also get to see where Good Will Hunting was filmed.
  • Letters From Iwo Jima — Next month, Military Historical Tours will visit Iwo Jima on the 62nd anniversary of the historic Battle.
  • Little Miss Sunshine — Road trip!!! Follow the dysfunctional Hoover family’s path along Route 66. Just be certain to have a more dependable vehicle.
  • The Queen — Filmed in Scotland, the movie mainly uses stand-ins for the locations on film, but persistent travelers can book cottages at Balmoral Castle.

Personally, I’d like to visit Uganda, but The Last King of Scotland didn’t get a nod for Best Picture. Nevertheless, the 79th Annual Academy Awards are this Sunday. You can book your travel any time you like.

Japan’s Capsule Hotels

by Willy Volk on

Japan is filled with busy businessmen who may not have time to return home after a long day. Japan is also filled with precious little space (well…you know what I mean), so many hotels do not have large footprints. Enter Japan’s capsule hotels. Each “room” in the hotel is filled with several sleeping compartments, which are, frankly, just large enough for a person to slide into.

Sort of like a morgue with a fresh coat of paint, capsule hotels are a great way to offer ample accommodation in tight spaces. Purchase your room through a vending machine, hand your bag to the attendant, and head up to the capsule. Obviously, this isn’t the hotel to hit if you have (a) a large family; (b) a pet; or (c) claustrophobia.

Want to learn more? Here are some other bite-sized resources about Japan’s tiny capsule hotels:

I’d like to visit a capsule hotel, just for the experience. Then again, I’d like to visit Japan, just for the experience.

Last Minute Valentine’s Idea: Go To Japan, Bathe In Chocolate

by Jonathon Morgan on

If you’re in love with a chocoholic, this may be your ticket never-ending bliss. Just in time for Valetine’s Day, one Japanese spa has created a new service: chocolate baths.

Revelers hop into water mixed with cacao and fragrant bath powders, to which staff add creamy chocolate — pouring it onto the bathers, who then…well…use it accordingly.

With recent research indicating that chocolate helps release “feel good” hormones — creating sensations commonly attributed to being in love, a dip in the chocolate bath might be just what you need to convince that reluctant partner to take the next step.

Or just use it as an aphrodisiac. The choice is yours.

Dazzling Effects of HDR Imaging

by Justin Glow on

Following up on Dave’s “Lights of Tokyo” post yesterday, I tracked down some more amazing cityscape photos of Japan for your viewing pleasure. It’s hard to believe these are real photos and not some computer generated model. Like Dave mentioned, the effect is obtained by a post-production image processing method called HDR.

What exactly is HDR? “High dynamic range (HDR) images enable photographers to record a greater range of tonal detail than a given camera could capture in a single photo,” says CambridgeInColour.com’s tutorial on creating HDR images. The breathtaking final product you see is actually a combination of multiple images of varying exposures, yielding the cartoonish, futuristic qualities typical of this process.

Flickr has a large community of photographers creating HDR images, and simply searching for “HDR” brings up thousands of impressive examples. If you’re interested in creating your very own HDR photos, start with the CambridgeInColour.com tutorial, which requires Adobe Photoshop CS2 (and a digital camera, of course) — and be sure to share your results with us!

Lights of Tokyo

by Dave Luna on


This dreamy High Dynamic Range (HDR) photo was taken at the top of the Roppongi Hills Mori Building in Tokyo, Japan by /ltus. I love how the vibrant lights make the city appear alive.

HDR imaging composites a range of camera exposures of the same subject. The technique usually produces a gorgeous picture with brilliant color and deep contrast.

(via Boing Boing)